Open Letter

Dear Baby Boomers,

You are about to retire, and the marketing machine you've been running has noticed. Those of you, like my parents, who are privileged enough to really retire, but who are not yet planning to use some of their long vacation to get involved in our world, I'm writing to you.

Before you buy the Cadillac Escalade, --the Led Zeppelin soundtrack in the ad for is meant to remind you that once back in the day you were cool, edgy, rebellious, idealistic, Aquarian -- think about what you will do with your free time and your social security money and your dividends other than spoil your deserving grandchildren.

Finish what you started.

I know you had to give up the "revolution" and get on with adult life: career, children, all the expenses of children and the joys, and then care for parents, and the whole shebang. I also know that we could do some very interesting things in terms of shaping that regular life so that it does a much better job making people well and happy. All kinds of people, not just us in the upper-middle class.

Money? (some)
Ingenuity? (oodles)
Good will? (lots)
Good faith? (some)
Problem-solving skills? (bags full)
Will?

And there it is. You had the will to invent the twist and turning on, to invent the Great Society and critique its weaknesses, to demand equal pay not refrain from rioting when you did not get it, to imagine, and to grow up. And in all of it, you cut a new path. The ads play on that. Give them the lie.

The Escalade ad pictures you driving through beautiful countryside, remembering the era when Dionysus was embodied in Robert Plant and you wanted to be him or do him. The Ameriprize ad pictures you mountain biking and getting remarried, or reaffirming your vows under a teepee of ribbons on the beach in a very Simple Living style, what with the white-washed color values in the shot and all. Great. Live it up. Stay sexy and vibrant. I love you that way. But remember, what you have now that your kids are me -- grown, established, and raising kids and sending them to college, paying for our house, and saving for our retirement -- what you have is TIME. Use it. Don't just go on vacation, please. Or sit around playing bridge and cribbage and Texas Hold 'Em (sorry, that's my gen, oops). Get involved. Remember all those causes? Remember how you were going to change the world?

What are you going to do with all those good years of adventurous, trailblazing, romantic, revolutionary, turned-on, cool, and groovy self you have the health and good fortune to look forward to?

Thanks for the music, and the movies, poetry, novels, art, and the clothes that were better looking the second time around (but that's fashion, isn't it?). I dig it. But that didn't really get it, did it? The deep structures, those still need work.

I have ideas about the shape of the social and cultural legacy you should leave, or help my generation to create, lots of them. But, it's rude to impose on one's elders. Hopefully, it's not rude to implore one's elders.

Gen-X remembers. Some of us. Lots of us are involved, but we are a small generation, tiny, really. Remember civil rights, and gender issues, and race issues, and economic issues, and crime issues, and teaching children about relationship issues, and think about where the money and energy should go. It's not like anything got simpler in the last few decades. Remember how America wondered, "Where did all those poor people come from" after Katrina, when the Gulf Coast looked like Indonesia the year before (and still does)? Well, they never went away. They got moved out of sight. What do you think a society should do about these concerns? You have time research it, digest it, act on what you believe. Think about the shape of the world and the shape of life you want to leave the next generations. You have the time now, you can make it more possible. Not fully realized ... history is just slow. But more possible, more real. Use the time. Enjoy the time.

Use the mixture of pragmatism and idealism your dreams and experience and insight earned. Reach forward with us.

Give me something to really want to be when I grow all the way up. Because while you should protect your social security as you see fit and find tax loopholes as you can, and go on a long vacation if you can afford it, that alone will not be enough.

Not to garner my admiration. No way. I learned from you. I respect those who earn my respect.

And do, for the joy of it, go dance on the beach. It's good for your soul.

Love and Peace.